Tag Archives: mental illness

Isn’t this an interesting turn of events that Robert Hawkins is all over the news after killing eight people and wounding five others, is being talked about as if he was such a tortured soul and worthy of our sympathy.Yet what sympathy was shown for Kiehl Coppin who also had mental problems yet was shot by police in a hail of twenty bullets after seeing what they thought was a gun which in reality was only a hairbrush.What do we know of his background except the fact that the police claim he said over and over that he “wanted” to die.

As I watch the news this morning every station is doing stories on Robert Hawkins background, the fact that he broke up with his girlfriend, lost his job and overall felt like a burden to those around him.Now tell me again what was the problem with Kiehl Coppin?What was his dilemma that caused him to act out on that faithful day the cops decided he needed twenty bullets as the cure.How many people did Kiehl kill that made him so detested by the news who could only point the finger at him and say that he “was” the problem.He as well as Robert couldn’t get healthcare for their mental dilemmas yet only one of them is seen as a case for why mental health needs closer scrutiny.

One news caster actually stated “how sad this young life ended feeling so tortured that he actually had to pick up a gun and do something so heinous to feel he mattered.”He was even described as “introverted, a troubled young man who was like a lost pound puppy that nobody wanted.”Exactly how tortured was poor Kiehl who was in his own home feeling poorly and in desperate need of mental care or maybe he was a lost puppy that it seems his mother wanted.In fact the only things that news casters reported about Kiehl was he had a history of violence, mental illness and arrests.

This is the second day that we are seeing around the clock coverage talking about Robert Hawkins and his tortured background and we saw all of about a few hours of coverage for a murder by cop victim who had a similar background just the wrong skin color.I am always fascinated as to what makes one person a media darling and the other a media pariah.Maybe if Kiehl had gotten a gun climbed the clock tower and taken out the town he would have gotten a little more sympathy from the news, media and people in general.

As I read the Blogs about both situations it became increasingly clear that this was a case of racial differences.I read more than a few comments for Kiehl that said “So a mentally deficient nigger is shot dead for not following directions.I can’t find the tears for this, LIBS.”And “His own mother called the cops saying he was threatening her life. People making a big deal about this are probably a bunch of criminal rats themselves.”These were taken from halfricanrevolution.Yet the comments heard for Robert are ones of sorrow even linking what he did to the fact that he was taking anti depressants and that was the reason for his outburst.Even his old school principal where he dropped out of school said he was a good kid and never ever showed any violence towards neither students nor teachers.

How many of Kiehl’s family, friends, teachers or principals did the press or anyone else talk with in order to find out what a tortured soul he was?Did they even care or was the whole point of coverage meant to show how the cops did what was necessary to stop what they felt was a dangerous and violent person who may have had a gun.When are we going to stop having this black equals guilty, bad or just plain doesn’t matter attitude when it comes to victims and perpetrators.If we are going to look at the fact that one mentally deranged person is becoming the martyr that he wanted while another deranged person is just gunned down without anyone’s pity, let’s just take out all the discrepancies and report the crime and be done with it all.